The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit device, and more particularly to a technique which is useful for layout of a structure for placing a pad over an I/O cell in the same.
A chip-like semiconductor integrated circuit device is manufactured, for example, by forming various semiconductor integrated circuit devices in a semiconductor wafer composed of a single crystal silicon and the like, and thereafter separating the semiconductor wafer into individual semiconductor chips by dicing. In the principal surface of a semiconductor integrated circuit device, a plurality of bonding pads as external terminals is provided along the peripheral portion of the semiconductor integrated circuit device.
For example, Japanese patent laid-open No. 9-283632 describes a technique concerning a semiconductor integrated circuit device, in which a plurality of rows of bonding pads is arranged in a staggered manner along the outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor chip, the semiconductor integrated circuit device having three or more interconnect layers, wherein a first lead-out wire is formed of one or more layers of wires including at least a top layer wire, the first lead-out wire electrically coupling an inner row of bonding pads to an internal circuit, and wherein a second lead-out wire is formed of a plurality of layers of wires, the layers being different from that of the first lead-out wire, the second lead-out wire electrically coupling an outer row of bonding pads to the internal circuit.
Moreover, Japanese patent laid-open No. 2003-163267 describes a technique concerning a semiconductor integrated circuit device including a cell part and a buffer circuit part formed so as to surround the cell part, wherein a plurality of bonding pads is formed over the outer peripheral portion of the buffer circuit part as well as over the buffer circuit part, respectively, and is arranged in a staggered manner over the outer peripheral portion of the buffer circuit part as well as over the buffer circuit part.